Former This Morning host Phillip Schofield blames his BROTHER for ITV sacking as he hits out ‘I was fired for his crime’
Former This Morning host Phillip Schofield says he was sacked by ITV because of the bad publicity caused by his paedophile brother’s crimes.
That contradicts the narrative created around the time of his departure in May last year, which suggested he had resigned after confessing to a fling with a younger runner.
Phillip was talking in his Cast Away documentary, which starts tonight on Channel 5, and sees him bare his soul while isolated on a desert island.
He said: “I was becoming more of a story than the programme. And I agreed to say that I resigned because it would be neater for everybody. I was fired for the bad publicity for someone else’s crime.”
It was always believed Phillip had to leave because he had not confessed earlier about his affair with the runner.
In the last of the three-parter, on Wednesday, he says: “I blew my own wheels off with everything else because I thought the only way to even begin to put this right for everybody is to do a full mea culpa.
“I came clean about my affair. What people don’t realise is I wasn’t fired from This Morning when I admitted lying… it was before, because of someone I used to call brother.”
He also appeared to hit out at certain colleagues on This Morning who claimed they hadn’t been kept in the loop about the fact Tim Schofield was facing sexual offence charges against a teenage boy in 2023.
Phillip said: “I was always open and honest with everyone at work about what was happening with my brother.”
Potentially alluding to his former co-host Holly Willoughby, he said: “There are people that you hoped would be around and then they’re not.”
Cast Away verdict
By Rod McPhee
OVER three nights – and three hour-long episodes – Phillip Schofield has been bearing his soul in new Channel 5 show Cast Away.
And it’s basically a chance for the former This Morning host to explain the circumstances that saw him leave the show last year.
To put it mildly, he left under something of a cloud, admitting he’d had a fling with a much younger runner on the programme. But in the C5 show he presents his own versions of events – one which is at odds with the narrative that emerged at the time.
He was portrayed as a man who’d had an “unwise” affair, who’d resigned as a result and had let many of his colleagues down.
But in Cast Away Phillip insists he was fired by ITV and not for the affair, but because of the bad publicity that surrounded the crimes of his paedophile brother. He summed it up best when he claimed he’d been “pushed under a bus.”
After watching Cast Away what you’re left with is something rather confusing, however.
Did Phillip think he’d done something wrong by having the fling with the runner, or not? For example, he said he wouldn’t have been slammed for it quite so much if it were a heterosexual fling.
He said he: “would have received a pat on the back for having an affair with a woman.” This infers that the only thing wrong with it was that it was a same sex fling. So why does he also say: “I will be forever sorry. I screwed up. I made a mistake.”
The answer, I suspect, is that the whole affair was a murky business. There were so many blurred lines around appropriateness, professionalism and honesty.
The only firm conclusion you can draw from the show is that Phillip himself isn’t ENTIRELY sure to what extent He was guilty of wrongdoing.
Amid the confusion, what will the viewing public think? I suspect that this will leave those who disliked Phillip to feel even more suspicious of him.
Those who backed him, will feel reassured too. But those who still aren’t sure what to think will be none-the-wiser – and I’m not sure if that’s what Phillip would have wanted.
Trench is a Lil’ French
Emily In Paris star Lily Collins looks to have taken style tips from her Netflix character as she headed out for an afternoon stroll in London.
The actress covered up with a chic trench coat and contrasting scarf as she swapped the French capital for a trip with friends to Shepherd’s Bush Market.
She browsed a book stall and stopped to take photos with delighted fans.
Lily has starred as fashion PR Emily, inset left, for four years, with a fifth season of the hit series confirmed for 2026.
The romcom drama follows the marketing exec as she navigates life in Paris, alongside the likes of Ashley Park as her best friend Mindy Chen, and Lucas Bravo and Lucien Laviscount as love interests Gabriel and Alfie.
Never Mind The Buzzcocks host Greg Davies says the show will bring more “chaos” than ever when it returns on October 16. Greg, who will be joined by Noel Fielding, Sophie Willan, Jamali Maddix and Daisy May Cooper, said: “Countless times I’ve lost the plot this series.”
Big Bro duo foil eviction
Big Brother’s Will Best and AJ Odudu are back for the long-running reality show’s second series on ITV – and say they are staying put as co-hosts.
Will said: “Neither of us are leaving. Unless we’re dragged out of that building.”
AJ added: “It is beautiful to do a job I’ve always dreamed of doing – and alongside a best mate is even better.”
Will reckons the show will play a role in his wedding day – when he and stylist fiancée Tobi Rose eventually tie the knot.
He said: “I’m sure we will have some fun with it, but who knows when the wedding will actually happen. We can get some of the Big Brother housemates on the guest list.
“By the time the wedding happens, we’ll probably be about 15 series down.”
Celebs To Dice With Ice
Dancing On Ice has confirmed the first batch of celebs who will be competing this winter.
Sam Aston who is best known for playing Chesney Brown on Coronation Street, will be joined by The Traitors finalist Mollie Pearce in the 17th series.
Olympic rowing legend Sir Steve Redgrave will also feature in the ITV challenge.
Steve said of the news: “It’s like going back to being an athlete – I’ve been competing most of my life.”
It was also confirmed that TV personality Ferne McCann has signed up for the show, as I revealed earlier this year.
Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern will present the series, which is expected to air early in 2025.
Ex Corrie star Ryan Thomas and pro-skater Amani Fancy won the most recent contest in March.
Ian Wright will join Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Jamie Carragher on a European adventure in the second outing of The Overlap On Tour on Sky Max. The series, from October 29, will see the four head to Turin, Barcelona, Istanbul and Rome to look back at top football highlights.
Flight Is strife of Brian
Death-defying scenes in Professor Brian Cox’s new BBC documentary were so alarming they had to be cut.
The famous physicist was flown across Alaska to view the surface of a glacier that matched those in space for new series Solar System.
He said: “I went on a flight with a glacier aviator to Denali, which is the highest mountain in elevation in the world, with a woman known as the Raven of Denali.
“It was an old aircraft, single engine. I was nervous. I was chatting away and she suddenly said, ‘Right you have to be quiet now, I’m going to fly you over the ridge’.
“The ridge is always really turbulent – we went over it and the plane went weightless. I saw the cameraman with his camera floating up into the air, he was falling.
“We couldn’t put that in.”